Typography

Words exist as objects in the scene rather than as a caption over it. Letters stand on the ground, catch the key light and throw shadows across the set.

That gives the text a place in the story. A title the characters could walk around belongs to the world, and one laid flat on top of the picture belongs to the edit.

Light the letters with the same source as the set, as the note says. Same direction, same hardness, same colour. A letter with no shadow is a caption.

Give the type a position in depth. It goes behind something, or in front of something, or partly occluded by a shoulder, and that overlap is what puts it in the room.

Perspective has to agree with the lens. Letters seen at an angle converge the way the architecture converges, so type that stays square on while the room recedes has come off a different camera.

Use it for titles that open inside a scene, for a location card, and for any piece where the design and the photography are meant to be one thing.

Skip it for subtitles and functional information. Those have to be readable above all else, and a letter in perspective with a shadow on it is harder to read.

Mixed media keeps its drawn and printed elements visibly separate from the photographed layer. Scene typography does the opposite and asks the letters to obey the physics of the room they are in.

The test is the shadow. Type that is lit and shadowed by the set is scene typography. Type that stays flat and separate is mixed media.

Flat text arrives centred over the shot. Say the letters are physical objects standing in the scene, lit by the same source as the set.

The second failure is type with correct lighting but no occlusion. Ask for something in the scene to pass in front of a letter.